


Audere est Facere

by theJuniorRoyals



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Friends to Lovers, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Muggles, another fkn wonhui, we need more wonhui
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-01
Updated: 2017-04-01
Packaged: 2018-10-13 11:54:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10513260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theJuniorRoyals/pseuds/theJuniorRoyals
Summary: Wonwoo was so excited to get his Hogwarts letter on his birthday, until he didn't. Insert Junhui, who will make Wonwoo feel less bad about being non-magic.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Audere est Facere: Latin for 'To do is to dare'.

Growing up, rather slowly and anxiously, he could say, Wonwoo waited and waited for the moment he would wake up on his eleventh birthday, and run downstairs to see his parents holding his letter for the one and only school for witches and wizards, making it clear that they were truly a magical family. Due to this, Wonwoo tried his hardest to rush through his childhood as fast as possible, so to just get his letter as quickly as possible.

Wonwoo was born on July 17, 1996, and as a child, growing up was fun and high spirited, though anxiety filled as he watched on, his two older brothers gaining their letters to Hogwarts, his eldest brother Haneul getting his letter in 2001, and his closest in age brother, Sunhwa, in 2004. He distinctly remembers how ecstatic they were when they found out that there would be another wizard in the family. Another wizard. Surely, when Wonwoo got his letter, it would be a family full of them. He couldn’t wait.

In the meantime, from very little, Wonwoo’s parents had introduced him and his brothers to magic, making sure they let the secret spill to no muggle, no matter if they could become a wizard or witch. Wonwoo took advantage of it, whenever one of his siblings (namely the eldest, who had a thing for not picking on someone his own size) had done the classic holding-an-item-over-my-head-and-you-got to-jump-to-get-it, and his mother swooped in with a flick of her wand and the item went soaring out of his perpetrators hands and into his own. His mother would cast a grin his way and he stormed out of the room, and upset older brother in his wake.

As a young 6-year-old, when Haneul got his letter, he watched how happy they were, and the laughter and happiness of the room made him smile, and he wished that Hogwarts had an elementary program for young witches and wizards. The actions followed in 2004 when Sunhwa got his letter, more smiles and cheers, and Haneul, going on a fourth year, watches as his little brother would be following his steps and the following weeks, a letter sent back home with Wonwoo on his mother’s lap, her tearful but happy voice reading that Sunhwa had also been placed in Ravenclaw, the third in the family. The only exception to this was his father, who was a brilliant Slytherin, but no one had anything against him despite being from that certain house. Wonwoo wondered what Ravenclaw would be like when he goes.

Wonwoo could not wait to turn eleven. Haneul had just turned seventeen on June 26th and was going on a seventh year, allowed now to do magic outside of Hogwarts, he just paraded around the house with his wand put doing whatever he pleased, and Wonwoo was so jealous, and he couldn’t wait to see if Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade was just as fantastic as they say it is. But, for now, let’s take a couple steps backwards to November, 2006. 8 months before Wonwoo would get his letter. He sits in the park on the swings, watching the local boys play baseball, not having an interest to join them, just lolls back and forth, keeping his eyes downcast, trying not to catch their attention and being forced to play.

A tap on his shoulder had his head turning to his right. A boy, who must have been his height, and possibly age, too, motioned for him to follow. Wonwoo followed wearily, watching his retreated figure as he huddled behind a tree, the lake further away was clear for their eyes. This boy had short hair and a big nose, but Wonwoo tried not to stare. He looked quite tan, and Wonwoo felt very inferior suddenly as a pale boy with dark hair and eyes, this boy seemed to glow.

“I’m Jun. I just moved here and I wanted to make friends.” He seemed very energetic, and Wonwoo took this as his signal that he didn’t seem to dangerous.

“You could have talked to me normally, you know. I’m not mean.” The boy just smiled.

“Thanks! I just wanted to be somewhere else though, those boys don’t seem to like me, I saw how they looked at me. Did you see?” Wonwoo felt a little uncomfortable at the turn of conversation, so he shook his head and changed subjects.

“I’m Wonwoo. Jeon Wonwoo.” Jun smiled big.

“That’s a cool name. My full name is Wen Junhui. I come from China, but I mastered my Korean when I was young, and before now I came from somewhere in Gyeonggi. Don’t ask, I can never remember the name.” Wonwoo just stared for a moment, perplexed.

“So, you came from China, lived in Gyeonggi for a while and now you’re here, in Gyeongsangnam?” Wonwoo turned his body to face the water beyond, listening to the boy.

“Yep. The deal was we would move here eventually, Mom always liked it better here. We learned Korean for just that reason. It was a perfect opportunity to come over when my dad got promoted in the Korean Ministry of Magi-” In that instant, Jun clapped a hand over his mouth, signaling that he had said too much.

Ministry of… Magic?

“Magic?” Wonwoo asked timidly. Jun’s eyes blew wide and he tried to make an excuse, but Wonwoo knew. “Your father works at the Ministry?” Jun watched with an exasperated look, trying to most likely ask ‘How do you know?’ but cannot find the words. Wonwoo saved him the trouble. “My family is magic, too. I’m not supposed to tell anyone, but since we clearly both come from magic families, we don’t have to hide.”

As a ten-year-old, Junhui gave him the most trustworthy smile a ten-year-old could manage.

A friendship bloomed from this commonality. They talked to each other often, Wonwoo actually being glad to see the brand new male was put into his classes, and they made an unlikely duo, but an exceptional one. Summer rolled around at the start of June, and Wonwoo and Junhui walked out of the building side by side, talking about nonsense, and how many sleepovers they were going to have.

“Sleep over tonight! My brother can tell us what he learned in Transfiguration, I really have been begging him to tell me how to turn my computer mouse into a real one.” Wonwoo said, looking out into the distance. The closer his birthday came, the giddier he was. He could not wait to go to Hogwarts.

Late into that night, after Haneul’s speech about how to turn animals (sadly, he could not yet do legal magic as his seventeenth birthday had not arrived for another 20-something days) the two lay awake and talking about the future, mainly one thing.

“Your birthday is June 10th, right?” Wonwoo asked from his position besides the older boy.

“Yup. 9 more days. Gosh, I’m so excited. I can’t wait to be sorted, and to be in the common rooms, and to have my own owl.”

Wonwoo giggled. “I know, me either. I think the most nervous I will get is when we have to be sorted. My mom and my two brothers are Ravenclaw, so I hope I go there. It seems so big and so magical, I want my birthday to come sooner. Where do you want to go?”

Junhui thought. “My dad was a Slytherin. My mom is a muggle, so I don’t really think she cares all too much. I want to be in Slytherin, but I don’t want to be bad, you know? I want to be like my dad. He’s really nice, though he was in Slytherin. I can’t wait.”

But waiting they did. And on the morning of June 10th, after the Jeon family had eaten their breakfast and listening to his brother go on about how he just wants to be seventeen so he can pull out his wand and not be threatened to get expelled, Junhui came knocking rapidly on the door, and blew past Sunhwa to Wonwoo.

“Wonwoo, look!” He held out his arm and Wonwoo took it. It was his Hogwarts letter.

“Hey, congrats squirt. Maybe now you can be the one to take all the complaining from Wonwoo over the fact that he doesn’t have his letter yet instead of us, you know, since you’ve been declared a wizard and all.” Sunhwa beamed from the counter. Wonwoo’s mother congratulated Jun and he left feeling better than ever, telling Wonwoo his birthday was right around the corner, and he would be with him on the Hogwarts express in no time.

And no time it really was. Haneul’s birthday was a come and go sort of thing, Wonwoo didn’t pay much attention as he waited for his letter, so eagerly. “Patience, dear. You’re going to worry the headmaster ill if you keep pacing like this.” His mother would reprimand.

He woke up on the morning of his birthday feeling excitement course through all his veins and he bolted downstairs to see his mother at the table, looking shaken. “Did my letter come?” His mother paused for a moment before replying: “No, not yet, but I’m sure it will. It’s still early.”

Wonwoo, being to overhyped with joy, didn’t seem to notice the stack of mail sitting on the table, and when he bounced around to the front door to watch for any owls, he missed the glances his parents sent each other.

Wonwoo sat in his room impatiently, constantly taking glances outside the window for any sign of an own with a large letter in its beak. His intense staring contest with the sky was interrupted by his brother.

“Junhui’s here.” He backed away to let the smaller boy run inside, and Wonwoo’s stomach turned when he saw the grin on his face, and it was all excitement just to see Wonwoo’s letter- which hadn’t arrived.

“Did you get it yet? I got mine in the morning, you should have gotten yours by now.” Junhui bounced on the bed and watched Wonwoo turn slowly in his desk chair. For a strange moment, he realized how uncomfortably mundane his room felt. In his parent’s room and in his two brother’s they both had things floating among the ceiling, and clothes organizing themselves in their closets and drawers. He didn’t dwell on it long enough to think of an excuse other than it was because he wasn’t eleven yet.

But now he was. And there was no letter.

“Jun…” Jun’s head shot up from where he was watching the floor and glancing in the hall to see some pants walk their way down to the laundry. “Do you think… maybe I’m not a wizard? And I won’t get my letter?”

Junhui’s eyes got wide, and he shuffled over to Wonwoo’s side and sat himself on his desktop. “Of course not! Your whole family is magical, there’s no way you wouldn’t be!”

Wonwoo nodded, trying to feel temporarily better after the sudden thought dawned on him. Junhui tugged on his arm and took him to the park, wanting to get his mind off the fact that he may not be the same as Junhui.

It worked for the most part, they were busy pretty much all day and Wonwoo only remembered that he was supposed to get his invite to the magic school when he arrived home, the sky just on the edge of darkness. He stepped into the kitchen and saw his mother there, her face instantly contorted in pity when she saw him.

“Did my letter come?” He got no immediate answer, and his heart dropped.

“I’m sorry,” Wonwoo didn’t stick around long enough to find out what came after that, he shut himself up in his room and didn’t bother to keep denying the truth any longer, so he cried.

After a while he didn’t realize what he was crying about, maybe crying because he felt heavy, like a burden to his whole wizard family, to his wizard friend. He needs to get his parents money to keep sending him to muggle school, and he will never get to see the castle in person, like his mother had, his father, brothers, and best friend will. His bedside clock read 12:35 AM by the time he had stopped crying and the slow blinking of the colon separating the hour to the minute seemed awfully bland. He looked around in the darkness and noticed how nothing stood out to him, how there weren’t clothes shuffling themselves inside closets and his desk wasn’t rearranging itself. His eyes got foggy again as he noticed how boring his room was compared to his families, and how boring it will forever be.

A witch or wizard is supposed to get their letter to Hogwarts on their 11th birthday. Wonwoo went the whole day without being greeted by a messenger owl, went the whole day without opening his very own Hogwarts letter like he had watched his brothers do. He stares up at the ceiling, watching nothing in particular. He closes his eyes once they got too dry. Maybe he is just a special case, maybe he is a late bloomer. Maybe he will get his letter on his 12th birthday instead, and be known for that. He was born to a wizard family; he has got to have some magic blood in him.

Wonwoo listens as the voices of his parents pull him out of his daze. He snuck out of his bed and stood at the edge of the stairs, and strained his ears, desperate to listen.

“How could this happen, though? You know how rare it is?” His mother cried softly.

“Exactly, it’s rare, but it’s not unheard of. It’s just a shame that it had to be him.” His father reconciled. Wonwoo heard the creak of his brother’s bedroom door, and dashed back into his own room before he could get caught.

Wonwoo suddenly hated his eleventh birthday.

When the beginning of the school year arrives he hugs Junhui goodbye and sits at home with his father as his mother brings them to the Hogwarts express via Floo powder, taking her and his brothers halfway across the world. He sits silently as his father paces downstairs, and he feels like he really is a burden to the family, now he needs to take up the extra space in their home when his parents could have had a great child free year if he had gone. He still thinks there has been a mix up.

A couple months later, his mother tells him that he has a letter from Junhui. His heart leaps in excitement and he runs upstairs with the parchment in his hand as he sits and reads. He skims over the ‘Dear Wonwoo’ and tries not to feel jealous when Jun tells him that the castle is even bigger in person. Jun writes that he got into Gryffindor, which shocked him a little but he knows the Sorting Hat is always right, and Wonwoo finds himself wondering which house he would have been put in. He says that Wonwoo would love it here and that he would see him for summer, because he was staying over Christmas break, and Wonwoo greets a lonely school year with no more friends than the last year, and he feels like people respect him even less.

Summer rolls around after countless dreams of waking up one morning to a Hogwarts letter sent late and Jun and him around the castle together, and he couldn’t be happier to take in Jun in his arms, and examine him after being apart from far too long. His hair was a little longer now, and he had lost some of his tan complexion. The first words out of his mouth were: “I missed you!” and for a moment Wonwoo forgot that he was so upset he didn’t get to go.

Junhui’s birthday came around with Wonwoo stuck to his side but he didn’t mind, he enjoyed seeing the other happy, even if it meant once September came back he would have to go back to school, not to see him for another 9 months.

“Junhui?” Wonwoo rasps out one night while they were slept over at Wonwoo’s house, Junhui always said he loved the atmosphere of the house and all the magical objects taking charge of the chores. Wonwoo feels bad that he has to drag him away from that once they are in his room.

Junhui hummed in reply, and it prodded Wonwoo forward: “What’s it like at Hogwarts?”

Junhui turned his body to face Wonwoo, both of them staring intently at each other. “It’s amazing.” Wonwoo looks downward, before regaining eye contact, silently telling Junhui to say more. “It’s so big, and there is so many hallways, the paintings talk to you and the house ghosts can go through walls,” Wonwoo doesn’t stop looking at him as he talks. “It’s always so full of laughing and talking students, and the people in my house are so nice, they helped me through a lot of work and gave me advice, and are really supportive.” Wonwoo sighs as he listens to his dream school sound exactly like a dream. “But I didn’t like one thing.”

Wonwoo quirked an eyebrow. “What’s there not to like?”

Junhui looked at the mattress for a second and pursed his lips, he looked back up, almost shy. “You weren’t there with me.”

Wonwoo could swear to anyone that the summer had only been three weeks long, and not three months, but alas, it had. Wonwoo was whisking Junhui away for his second year of Hogwarts as a twelve-year-old, the hope that maybe the letter would know that it messed up last year would come eventually, though his birthday went by without anything. He bit his cheek as he watched Jun wave him good bye, and Wonwoo turned, keeping his smiling face as a memory for now.

November was the time where Wonwoo witnessed firsthand what it felt like to be the victim of a kid who holds his head to high and his ego is too large. The kid had shoved Wonwoo into the wall, complaining about how he is too small and how kids like him don’t belong in a school like theirs, and for the millionth time that month, he wishes he were at Hogwarts.

Wonwoo never thought he would experience what it feels like to be hit in the face, he thought if it did ever happen he would be much older, and drunk. But he was only twelve, and quite sober, for that matter. If twelve year olds could do drugs, he supposes, hitting him must be a drug for those kids, and they are probably overdosing.

He feels stiff. Quietly enduring many months of the occasional kick-and-scratch, he made it to June, and he was seeing Junhui in just a few hours. He lay on his bed, gotten accustomed to the unmoving pattern of the ceiling, and he drifted off to sleep.

He is shaken awake by none other than the boy he was waiting for, he noticed right away that his hair was falling flatter on his forehead than the previous years and he seemed to have a steady skin complexion now, much deeper than Wonwoo’s own but Wonwoo didn’t mind it. He sat up straight and grinned at Junhui, and the other boy took a seat next to him on the bed. Wonwoo couldn’t help but to stare at the shirt he had on, he hadn’t changed out of his uniform since he got home, clearly.

Junhui grabbed his hand and led him outside to his own house, and his hand feels hot. He dumbly assumes that that’s what it feels like when you touch a wizard (though he knows for a fact it doesn’t feel any different, he doesn’t acknowledge it).

Once seated inside Junhui’s room, it was now nighttime, and the two are no strangers to staying up late when they sleepover. Jun pulls out his textbook, for which class, Wonwoo doesn’t ask. He’s just ecstatic to see a real book actually from the school! His face lights up when Junhui shows him the things he had been learning recently, and when Junhui shows him the wand motions (without the wand) for the spells, Wonwoo feels like he’s actually in the class, learning it with him.

Wonwoo and Jun’s birthday’s pass with no trouble, the two sticking together like glue. He two, now thirteen, run around their small town doing anything and everything, and for a moment Wonwoo forgot that for his whole life, he wanted to be in the one place that his own best friend belonged to.

He thought it was a little strange, that they still managed to stay as close as they did, with Junhui disappearing for a whole school year and only coming back for three months at a time. It was sad, yes, but Wonwoo enjoyed the letters sent back and forth, and Jun never seemed to forget about him. That was a feeling he had never before experienced, not being forgotten.

Junhui was rambling excitedly about his new third year class, Divination, when Wonwoo interjected suddenly, feeling Jun was the right person to ask.

“Jun,” Jun stopped and watched Wonwoo expectantly, waiting patiently for him. “What’s a ‘squib’?” Jun closed his mouth and furrowed his eyebrows ever so slightly. His eyes got dark, but it was only so visible in the little light they had.

“Where did you hear that?” Junhui scooted closer while Wonwoo had his head down, curling the corners of one of Junhui’s older textbooks.

“I heard Haneul talking to his friend on the phone. He said I was a squib. He sounded disgusted, but I don’t know what it means.”

Junhui looked at him, and Wonwoo couldn’t read his expression, and he had never seen Junhui look like this before. He shook his head slightly, almost as if to say ‘Don’t worry about it’, but Wonwoo gave him a look like he needed to know now or he will be forever wondering. Jun sighed, then answered: “A squib… it’s when there’s a muggle,” He paused, trying to gather his thoughts. “Who… has magic parents.” Wonwoo processed this all, while Jun kept talking. “It’s when someone is born in a magic family, and they turn out to not be a witch or wizard. They’re… ordinary.”

Wonwoo looked down, he figured it was something bad, but now the realization hit him in the chest like a ton of bricks. What if he really wasn’t a wizard, and on his eleventh birthday there really was no mix up, and no late delivery. After all, there can’t be a late delivery if there is nothing to be delivered. Why did Haneul sound so… unaccepting?

“Is it common though? I’m sure Haneul was just mad about them in general, it can’t be just me…”

“No, it is very rare.” Junhui sounded like he didn’t want to finish the conversation, but Wonwoo was the one they were talking about here. “It’s usually looked down upon by pure bloods, especially Slytherin.” Wonwoo was silent for a minute, but Junhui was just staring at him, waiting for a response. “I’m sorry, that he said that.” Wonwoo shrugged his shoulders, and at the thought of his brother saying that about him brought him back to being hit in school.

With Haneul being now nineteen years old, Sunhwa a staggering sixteen, and Wonwoo a little thirteen, Sunhwa was now the only one enrolled in Hogwarts as Haneul had graduated two years prior, and felt awfully bigheaded as he paraded around with his wand, doing whatever he wanted. Even calling his brother a squib.

Wonwoo dreaded going back to school. He knew nothing had changed and the kids that tormented him would only get stronger as the years go on. But he sucked it up like a big boy, and he went to school on the first day, avoiding them as much as possible. It worked for a month.

When one of the kids socked him right in the mouth, and he was forced to step inside of his house with bloody lips, he knew he couldn’t avoid not saying anything. His mother tended to his bleeding with magical help of levitating cloths while she herself was situating a meeting with a principal of his school, and scheduling a transition meeting for another school. He glared at the floating rags with jealousy.

Jun doesn’t find out that Wonwoo switched schools until the next summer.

“Why did you switch? Did you not like that school?” Wonwoo winces as he should have been expecting that question.

“No,” He figured there was no point in hiding it from his best friend, which probably had some mind reading powers because he was a wizard: “I got punched in the face, and Mom got scared.” Jun’s eyes went wide.

“Why didn’t you tell me until now?” Wonwoo’s heart dropped when he saw the pure concern on his friend’s face, and he felt his eyes sting and well up with tears. He shook his head while looking down, not wanting Junhui to see him crying.

“I was scared,” He admitted in a small voice. Junhui didn’t prod any further, instead just got closer to him on the bed and hugged him. Wonwoo melted in the warmth of something he isn’t familiar with.

By Wonwoo’s fourteenth birthday, he accepts he’s not going to be a wizard. It was July 17th. Jun had been fourteen for about a month already, and they were sitting in the park, by the tree where they first met four years ago. They talked about anything and everything, this meeting seeming somehow different from the rest of the ones they have over the summer. They leaned against each other, laughing and kicking rocks away with the toes of their shoes and stood to walk back, as the sun was beginning to dip below the horizon.

“Hey, Jeon Wonwoo.” Wonwoo really underestimated how much he didn’t ever want to hear that voice again. “Why’d you run away, huh? Too much of a pussy to face us?” Wonwoo tried to turn back around and to Junhui, who was watching with increasing confusion. His shoulder was roughly jerked back and he spun around, he ducked for the punch that was being wound up, but he was shoved backwards yet again and watched with wide eyes as Junhui stepped in front of him, and his instinct took over. He reached around his waistband, and pulled his wand on the other kid.

Wonwoo gasped and took Jun by the shoulders and pulled him back. “Jun, stop! You can’t! You’re only fourteen!” Junhui was breathing heavily, clearly angered by the people who would dare hurt Wonwoo.

“Going to threaten me with your stick, huh? I’m so scared.” The kid smirked, but Jun’s hand was steady, not losing eye contact. The kid and one of his followers laughed at Jun, but the other one was still.

“Freak.” The kid spoke. Jun turned his attention to him, as did Wonwoo, still trying to get Junhui to put his wand away before he gets expelled. “You’re a freak. Like my sister.” He backed up one step, but his gaze was dripping with venom. “You both are good for nothing.”

“I can kill you, you know!” Jun fired back, now had his wand arm by his side. Wonwoo pried the tool out of his hand and kept it for safety.

“Let’s go, they aren’t worth it.” The boy who cried Freak told his band. They all departed, Wonwoo confronted Jun.

“Jun, what the hell? You can get expelled if you had used magic.” Jun took the wand back calmly and slipped it back in its place. “And that kid knew you were a wizard; it doesn’t make it any better!”

Junhui shook his head. Wonwoo, at all too much the wrong time, noticed how sculpted Junhui’s face was becoming, with high cheekbones and his jaw becoming prominent. “They were going to hurt you, I had to do something.”

Wonwoo doesn’t see Junhui for the rest of the summer.

Turns out, in a letter that Junhui sent him shortly after he went back to school for his fourth year, that he had gotten a letter of warning that he would be booted if he tries to attempt something like he had done in July again. His parents forbade him from seeing Wonwoo, he wrote in the letter, but it struck him as shocking, as his mother always had a soft spot for Wonwoo, and his father was the rule enforcer.

His new school showed him no problems, which was a big plus, but friends were still a difficulty to come by. The closest he had to a muggle friend was this short, cute kid named Jihoon who looked like a cherub but acted like the devil. Wonwoo found it endearing, and oddly motivating. He didn’t hang out with this kid or anything, they just happened to be in the same classes, so it gave Wonwoo someone to sit with and share similar interests with.

One of the commonalities, strangely enough, was that Jihoon, too, was a wizard-born muggle. Wonwoo found out once when Jihoon was dropped off at school, and a kid, maybe sixteen or seventeen, in the front seat had his sweater vest with the Hogwarts crest and his yellow and black striped tie on for Hufflepuff. Wonwoo asked him about it, and he denied nothing. They talked about how unsettling it was to be surrounded by wizards your whole life, but can never experience it yourself.

Jihoon made good company during the school year, but Jun made better during the summer.

They both sat at the window over Wonwoo’s bed, their top halves hanging out of the window, loving the feeling of the cool nighttime breeze flitting against their hot skin. Jun was now fifteen, and a few days were left until Wonwoo was also. Jun put his head on Wonwoo’s shoulder, and Wonwoo reciprocated by placing his head on Junhui’s.

“Wonwoo, I should tell you something.” Junhui admits.

“Me, too.” Wonwoo whispers. Junhui sits up, pushing Wonwoo’s head off. Jun looks at Wonwoo and tells him to go first. “I’m gay. I think.” Junhui cocks his head to the side, but doesn’t look angry, or grossed out, like Wonwoo half expected him to.

“You think?” Wonwoo nods.

“I’m not sure, but, I know it’s not straight. I’m not even attracted to girls that much. So, yeah. I think I’m gay.” His face heats up, and he figured if he just said it without thinking it would be a lot better than stuttering and looking like a fool.

“I’m happy for you. At least it didn’t take you forever.” He smiles gently. Wonwoo nudges him and tells him to go on, and to tell him what he wanted to say. “Do you remember when I sent you the note about why I disappeared at the end of summer last year?” Wonwoo nods. ‘It wasn’t the whole truth. I wasn’t allowed to tell you the whole truth. Not on the letter, at least. It went through my father first, and if he saw that I told you what really happened, he would pull me from the school.” He shifted around for a second, before continuing. “I got a letter that did threaten my expulsion, but it wasn’t my parents that held me back from seeing you, it was just my father.

“He got so angry that I almost faced being expelled because I was standing up for you, and there is no easy way to put it, but he got angry because I stood up for a muggle. I risked myself for a muggle.” Wonwoo’s throat closed, he felt like he couldn’t breathe. “He was so angry.” Junhui spoke quietly now, Wonwoo had to lean closer. “He hit me.” Wonwoo inhaled sharply and turned to look at him in shock, but he just had his head hung low. Wonwoo studied him from where he sat, trying to see any kind of emotion from Junhui. Jun exhaled, trying to come out like a laugh but instead just coming out as a sob. His face twisted where he was still looking down, and Wonwoo wondered if he really was crying, but he knew he was when he took a deep breath in and his body shook, and he stuttered some sniffled. Wonwoo didn’t know what to say.

“He hit me because he was so angry that I became friends with someone like you, that I put myself in harm’s way to protect you, a muggle.” He shook his head, a tear falling to his arms which were rested on the window sill. “Really is a disgusting Slytherin, that bastard. He won’t stop either. He will keep doing it because he found out I’m here, that I keep being with you.”

“Do you regret… becoming-” Wonwoo started.

“God, no, Wonwoo. I don’t regret becoming friends with you.” Junhui now lifted his head, and Wonwoo could see the tear tracks on his face, and his arm moved ahead of his brain when he lifted it to wipe the tears away. Junhui watched him, body still racking with silent sobs. “It was the best decision I ever made.” They held eye contact for a minute, Junhui’s eyes tragically beautiful with their shimmer from the tears, his dark brown hair framing his face, and Wonwoo took this (inappropriate, as always) time to see that as every year goes by, Junhui really does get more and more handsome.

It’s by Wonwoo’s fifteenth birthday that he realizes he’s in love with his best friend, who is a wizard.

As a fifteen-year-old, he is now in the 10th grade, of muggle school of course. Every waking day he faces the realization that he really does love someone who he won’t be able to constantly see until they are eighteen, when Jun doesn’t have to be gone for months at a time. He has no problem with this, he knows he can’t do anything that can switch the fate of them for now.

He goes on the year with Jihoon, like the previous year, and a new addition, a boy younger than him who is very tall and has teeth that could probably rip through skin if he tried, named Mingyu. He feels a little safer next to Mingyu, around Jihoon, he always felt like he was the one who had to act as a defense for the small boy, but Mingyu did just that for them both.

Maybe 10th grade was going to be a good year for Wonwoo, he didn’t feel any emotional constipation (phrase courtesy of Jihoon), and when he vented everything out to the two, they understood where he was coming from. Mingyu was not a wizard, nor was he anything like Wonwoo or Jihoon, and when he joined their little friend group, they both agreed to just leave out those details.

He feels much more relieved, due to the fact that he isn’t in middle school anymore, and there is no one to hit him whenever he feels like it. When he thinks of that, he then immediately thinks of Junhui. He feels like it’s his fault that Junhui was being hit by his own father, and he feels so incredibly guilty every time Junhui’s tear streaked face comes into his mind. It was his own fault, if he had just dealt with the kid on his own, Jun would have never gotten threatened to be expelled.

These thoughts fly out of the window when he sees Junhui on June 1st, the first day of the summer break.

It was like someone gave him a potion to just be handsome. It was like, God Wonwoo can’t even think of a proper analogy, it was like… someone just… gave him a handsome spell. Sure. They must have those. His cheekbones were high on his face and his jaw came to a nice point on the side of his face, Wonwoo’s knees feel weak. He watched him as he walked his way into Wonwoo’s home, nobody else but him there, and he looks so goddamn sexy (Wonwoo’s thoughts) in his plain t-shirt and his black robes hanging loosely around his shoulders. His hair was strewn around from the wind and he had a large smile on his face. Wonwoo stood up and smiled back, embracing him in a hug that he waited nine painstakingly long months for.

“Come with me, there’s a treehouse near the lake that we used to go to.” Wonwoo lets Jun pull him out of the house and with him, running through the streets, not caring that people thought Junhui probably looked medieval in his robes.

They climbed the ladder that Wonwoo was sure would break, and they sat in the little square room staring up at the sky which was growing dark, but only after Junhui insisted that he set down his robe for him to sit on (“Junhui, it’s going to get dirty!”

“Don’t worry about it, I’m going to be needed new ones soon anyway.”).

They both ranted and laughed and shared emotional stories about their school years, and once the sky grew to a cool dark blue, the stars very visible on this night, Wonwoo sighed.

“I think we could use some light.” Jun whipped out his wand, and Wonwoo stopped him with a hand. Junhui shook his head and laughed. “It’s not real magic. It’s just light. Lumos,” He chanted at the wand and the top lit up like a ball of light, and Wonwoo stared at it, fascinated. His family never did magic like this around him. With another upward flick of his wand, the ball detached itself and flew upwards, levitating in between the two boys’ heads. “Touch it.” Wonwoo saw Junhui smiling at him, and his heart leapt. He reached out to grab the ball of light, but was soon cut short when it jerked backwards behind Junhui, and Wonwoo stumbled forward.

He scrunched his brow, and leaned forward, basically caging Junhui just to grab the ball of light. It went further backwards with every move he made, and by the time he grabbed it he was literally in Junhui’s lap, the small ball leaking out of the gaps between his fingers and glowing like a halo. It felt silky in his fingers, and it felt like melting metal when he let it go, and it slowly floated back to its original position, in the middle of their heads.

Only now did Wonwoo realize how he was sitting, but he made no move to change it, as he was lost in the stare that Junhui was giving him. They were so close, mere inches separating how close they were, and Wonwoo found it so comfortable in Junhui’s lap, he could stay there forever.

“Wonwoo,” Junhui breathed out like he was out of breath. He had one hand behind him and one gently on Wonwoo’s thigh, and Wonwoo became hyperaware of this.

“Junhui.” He whispered back. He felt like he knew what was coming, and he couldn’t wait.

“Can I kiss you?” Wonwoo literally bit his tongue at this, or else he might have screamed. Instead, he said: “Please.”

The hand that was on Wonwoo’s thigh quickly moved up to his waist and pulled him forward, Junhui’s soft lips cushioning the impact from their faces. Wonwoo sighed immediately. He kissed Junhui back and he felt like all of the air was being sucked out of his lungs, his fingertips were tingling like crazy. Jun’s lips were like everything he had imagined and more; he was floating.

Both of Jun’s hands now were on both sides of Wonwoo’s waist, and he felt so small in his grasp. His own hands were around Junhui’s head; one on the side of his jaw and the other hooked around his neck. Junhui kissed him like Wonwoo thought he would never get to experience, and even though he was only so young, he felt like this was the best thing he had experienced.

He could feel Junhui’s fingertips on his skin, and that combined with the soft and warm touch of Junhui’s mouth on his own had his heart racing, he threads his hand into Junhui’s soft hair, why is everything so soft? Is there some kind of wizard moisturizer for literally everything?

How long they stayed there like that is a mystery to Wonwoo, but eventually they laid on their backs, the ball of light now hovering in the corner, dimmer now than it had been. Wonwoo was tucked in between Junhui’s body and arm, both staring up at the dark sky, knowing they need to go back but not having the energy to.

“What does this make us?” Wonwoo tiredly asked.

“Anything you want us to be.”

Wonwoo doesn’t see Junhui at all the next day, but he doesn’t notice much as he’s still going over everything that happened the night before, detail for detail. His heart races every time he thinks about how soft Junhui’s lips felt, how he held him, he craves it all again.

Night has fallen by the time Wonwoo stops thinking about kissing Jun when he hears a clink on his window. He hears it again, and sits up to see what’s making so much noise. It was Junhui. He was about to laugh, but then he saw a towel Junhui was holding to his mouth, and a blotch of a dark color covering the majority of it. His stomach twisted, and he opened the window to let Junhui in.

Once Junhui was sat down, Wonwoo turned on his lamp, and carefully took away the towel, revealing a busted lip, and a lot of dried blood already. He internally panicked before he could do anything, and he took the rag and replaced it with a clean, wet one. He cleaned away as much blood as possible, before he knew he could not do much more.

“I told you he would do it again.”

Wonwoo is sixteen years old, and alone for another school year. His friends are supportive of his relationship, and Jihoon especially, since he knows Jun is a wizard. He doesn’t feel at all lonely, though. He knows Jun is at Hogwarts and he knows that he misses him just as much.

Things take a slight turn for the worse only when Wonwoo finds out through his mother that his eldest brother, Haneul, had been arrested and tried by the Ministry for use of magic in front of many muggles. He doesn’t bother asking what he did. He knew Haneul would let the freedom of not being underage and doing magic get to him.

Christmas break Wonwoo sees himself home with Sunhwa, now graduated Hogwarts for two years, and no one brings up his brother. It’s almost like he was never a part of the family. Wonwoo writes Junhui this to tell him, he doesn’t get a reply back.

The only message he receives is in May.

‘Wonwoo,

God, this is going to be very fast because I’m packing and leaving for home soon. I won’t be able to see you for the summer, I’m sorry.

This letter isn’t going through my father because I’m going to use a different owl, so I’ll spare you the wondering and tell you that as shitty as Slytherin can get, it’s all him. He wants to keep magic in the family and does not want me near you, but I promise, I will do all I can. I know it pains you to see me hurt by my own flesh and blood, but I can endure it if it means he will leave me alone sometimes so I can leave to get you.

Don’t come find me, but don’t think I’m ignoring you until I come for you. I love you, don’t forget that.

Junhui.’

He really was right, he barely saw him at all over the summer, the only time he saw him was when he heard the clinks again on his window, the night of his seventeenth birthday. They spent the rest of his birthday close together and silently wishing there were better circumstances for them, but they both know there is only one year left, and Junhui promised to take him away where they can both be.

Junhui holds his face in his hands, gently stroking with the pad of his thumbs, listening to Wonwoo breathe steadily as they keep eye contact.

“Do you want to experience owning the room of a wizard?” Wonwoo smiles and nods, knowing now that he was of age and could legally do outside of school magic.

Junhui pulls out his wand and flicks it once, twice at the ceiling, and it was like the aurora borealis came to him. Greens and blues danced among his ceiling, and specks of white like shone through like the stars in the night sky. Comets and celestial bodies showed themselves on his ceiling, and he was tearing up. He breathes in deeply, takes it all in.

“Do you want to know why I got into Gryffindor and not Slytherin, like I wanted?” It strikes Wonwoo then that he never actually ended up asking Junhui why he did become a Gryffindor. “It’s because when I was on the stool with the Hat on my head, all I could think about was you. And how you wanted to be there so bad but life didn’t want that for you. And I decided that I didn’t need to be like my father, I needed to be a better me, for two people. I needed to be myself for me, and I needed to be myself for you.” Wonwoo felt the tears come again, but blinked them away, one escaped. Junhui thumbed at it. “I was courageous in choosing someone I love over someone in my bloodline. That hasn’t changed.”

Wonwoo didn’t bother to stop his tears now, he turned back to look at the ceiling as Junhui gently kissed his tear marks away, no longer wishing he was something he is not. Junhui promised to take them away, and Junhui has always been a man of his word.

**Author's Note:**

> fun fact: haneul's birthday (june 26th) is my real birthday:)


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